Chisel Inventory and Sharpening

Today I took the time to find out just what chisels I have in my arsenal. I know that may sound crazy, but I really did not have any idea what they were specifically. I would just grab the chisel I needed to make the cut I needed. So today i broke out the woodcraft catalog and plotted out the exact sweeps of each chisel. (With the cat's help) There were still some that slipped between the cracks, but I made my best guess with what I had. Now new chisels have the sweep stamped in the handle or the neck of the chisel. Unfortunately, Mine are so old that I can barely read the manufacturer! Well, In all I have 41 chisels. Of all makes models shapes sizes and qualities. I really only use several for most of my carving, but I have a feeling that is about to change. Besides, I have been looking for a reason to purchase new chisels for a while!

List of chisels: Gouges: #1 50mm,38mm, 16mm, #2 5mm, #3 15mm, #4 30 mm,13mm, 7 mm, #5 25mm, 15mm, 9 mm, 5 mm, #6 20 mm, 10 mm, 5 mm, #7 14 mm, 12 mm, #8 13 mm, #9 16 mm, 15 mm, #11 6 mm, Vtools: 55* 7mm, 8 mm, 45* 5mm. 60* 5 mm, 4 mm, Skews: 2 mm, 4mm, 11mm, 14 mm, Veiners: 1 mm, 1.5 mm, 2mm, 4mm, 4mm, 5mm, Fishtail skews: 5mm, 5 mm, 5mm, 5mm, What a nightmare trying to figure out what each one was. For those who don't know the higher the number the steeper the sweep, and the higher the mm. means how wide they are. Not too confusing once you sort it all out. Then it was off to the sharpening phase. What fun! I got half sharpened for the moment, I'll work on the rest later, but they are turning out well.

More Info On Kindel Furniture

In addition to the wonderful carved wood furniture in various antique styles, Kindel also provides services such as furniture restoration! Basically they take old items that may have not aged well over the years and restore them to their former glory. What a wonderful service! I have had the opportunity to restore a chair from Brower furniture. ( 1956 solid maple, ) We found it in a Goodwill for $10. The previous owners snapped the back rung off it and had ( GASP!) nailed it back into place, Splitting the wood and making it uncomfortable to sit in. After bringing it home and taking it completely apart, ( not to difficult since most of the glue joints were old, dry and brittle) I sanded it down and reassembled it, fixing the crack, dilling out the old dowels and replacing them with new ones, then gluing it back up with a new Titebond blue. Cheryl has been in love with it ever since! It was very rewarding to take a solid piece of furniture and bringing it back to life! I must say, I originally bought it to carve in it, but Cheryl insisted that we leave it the original way. Great furniture has something about it that tells you it is great. For instance: This chair is comfortable to sit in! After hours of sitting in a solid wood chair, you body will get fatigued, sore and cramped. But the design of this chair is differant. It's like the designers still knew what chairs were meant for and made them accordingly. Unfortuneately, Brower Furniture Co. was bought out by Great Western Group Inc. in 1981. However, Kindel might still be able to make a reproduction of this chair to match the lone survivor that we have. Cheryl remains hopeful!

Another Acanthus leaf study

Kindel Furniture specializes in carvings for furniture. And the majority of those seem to be acanthus leaves or shells. So tonight, I decided to re-familiarize myself with the age old favorite from the old architectural carving files. However! Instead of working in a piece of scrap oak or pine, I decided to purchase a small piece of Maple to work on. ( Hey! It was on SALE!) It was a small piece( so I can take it with me to the interview) I had to elongate the pattern so it would fit on a 1.5 inch section. ( rather smaller than what I usually do) Well, the first attempt, I tried to play it with no power tools, just chisels. It didn't like the results and it seemed to take a LONG time. The next one, I used the router to set it down 1/4 inch and I think it turned out much better. I know I still have to clean it up a bit in the corners and background, but I like it. I'm not sure if they sand it smooth or just leave it with the chisel finish. One thing is for sure. I need to resharpen my chisels! I lightly touched them up for the tree carvings, however, when dealing with smaller detail, I can see that they are not as sharp as they once were. So I'll probably be slaving this weekend to get them micro keen. It's always good to have scary sharp chisels anyway. Enjoy!

Kindel Furniture

Kindel Furniture is the pinnacle of classic furniture design. Wouldn't I be so lucky to find out that they are right here in Grand Rapids, just a stones throw away! They specialize in what I always thought they "furniture of Royalty" should be. Furniture with wonderfully detailed and decorative carvings, deep rich finishes, and superior craftsmanship and design. Of all the places in the world for a woodcarver, this looks like it would be as close to heaven as you can find. I found out that even my grandfather ( the one who's chisels I currently have) worked there for a certain time. ( He didn't go into specifics, but I'm impressed dad even knew about the place. I always thought Grandpa worked at Stow Davis) It's possible, since Kindel furniture has been around for 100 years. With a little luck, I may just add my name to that long list of craftsmen. It's almost a shame to show off the finished Eye I was working on yesterday next to these beauties. But here it is outside in the light. Now i'll have to carve a matching one so I can scare away the door to door salesmen!

A Study on Carving an Eye

Tonight I worked on honing my skills ( no pun intended) on carving an eye. I thought, "why not make it BIG?" I had a couple of stubby stumps in the back that really are not very good for anything worth carving, So, if at the end of this, it just becomes firewood, I will not have a problem with it. First I remove the loose bark, then outline the basic shape of the eye, then just work it in. Easy as pie! It was actually quite fast and I didn't even have to use the mallet much. The wood was rather spongy in a couple of areas and you can definitely tell. No matter! It will just look great when it sits outside. In other news, I have become addicted to soup and sandwich. Tomato and Grilled Cheese! It is probably the artist in me, or perhaps the old chef, but I like to make things look pretty. "Folks eat with their eyes." Marty used to say. And I believe he is right! If it looks good, 9 chances out of 10 it will taste good. Hope this doesn't make you too hungry!

Murphy's law

If something bad can happen..it will. Well So goes the story of the midnight carver. I'm at the library at the moment posting because of technical difficulties at home. So No pics, no fancy stories. Just logging in to check things and say hi. I will be starting another carving this week on a log, but it will be much smaller than the other one. I'm new to the library so I'm not sure I'll be able to post pics of the ongoing process. To not make this a totally boring post. Here's a great little anime: Martian Successor Nadesico. Enjoy!

Yet another display...

So tonight I took a break from carving to build Cheryl another display...this time a table. It's just a prototype at the moment, because we can not yet afford the good quality wood that Cheryl has her eye on. Then again it was helpful to have a rough first look at it before wasting expensive quality boards. At least we were looking for an improvement upon the Mall show we did last week. (GRRR!) Don't get me started on that show. Basically we at least want to make our display striking so it catches people's attention. Cheryl plans on painting it, but I'm not sure when or what color. At least it gave me something to do tonight.

To stain or to paint. That is the question.

Well I finished her up tonight. I debated for a while if I should just stain her and leave it at that, but the mottled color of the wood made her look deformed. I tried a darker stain but still was not satisfied, So I made the leap into paint. The flesh, hair and face were easy enough, but the body was a bit of a challenge. I still don't know if I'm satisfied with it, but I can aways repaint it. Cheryl suggested blue, but she ended up looking like wonder woman or a female version of the TICK! Then I toned it down with a greener glue and that seemed to work...for the moment. I really like the way the face turned out. And perhaps some day, I'll be able to display a full nude female in our front yard without any complaints from the neighbors. She looks like a ship mast head. One of the ultimate goals of my carving career would be to carve up one some day. Until then, I'll just keep practicing.

Eyes, Hair, And SANDING! YEAH!

Hey Hey! She's almost done! At least she's looking pretty good at the moment. I shouldn't say that because I see all of the flaws, but it has been almost a week since I dragged that log out of the woods, so I'm getting antsy to be finished. So tonight I started right in on the eyes and carved them out. Even thought I used the same sweep chisel for both eyes, one ALWAYS ends up slightly larger than the other. ( one of the flaws I was talking about.) However, Cheryl made the compliment "that at least she doesn't look cross-eyed this time." Thanks hon! Then I moved to the hair. This is always the fun part. I have found that it works best for me to start at the tips and work my way up to the top of the head. I used a small veiner for this one, but I have used v tools and various gouges to give a curled look to previous ones. I had to break out the dremel for the top of the head because of the rotted part. It shouldn't matter much since it is going to be outside anyway and the bad part will not be seen. Then came the sanding. Long laborious sanding. Every crack and crevasse. With three different grits The time just flew by before I knew it it was almost 6 hours later! But I did manage to make a big splash. I still might toy with it a bit more tomorrow, but I think I'll at least get started on the painting. Cheryl suggested that I put clothes on this one too since I plan on putting it out in the front yard and her mother is quite offended by nudity. Until then...Enjoy!

Ah! the Details

After sharpening up my chisels, I got back to work and started working on the fine details. You know, the kind of stuff where you spend 4-6 hours working on one little part to make it look just right. But then it doesn't look like you have accomplished much at all. Well, I do believe her face is coming along much better now. I'm quite happy that it is looking better from the side now. I also spent some time on her hands and arms. Thinning them out so they don't look so "man-ish". I would still like to make her hand smaller, but I think that at this moment, this size will have to do. I still have not figured out what I'm going to do with the eyes. I have been thinking strongly that they should be closed, but I'm not set on it. We'll post more tomorrow. Oh! Because I have not posted an Anime in a while. Cheryl and I watched Full Metal Panic the second raid all last night! Right now we are about 1/3 of the way through the first season. Here is the Openning. Enjoy!